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Editorial Column.

The public benefits of higher education have long been recognized. Higher education contributes to the public consensus; it transmits knowledge and attitudes toward the role of the citizen; and it may model good behavior in the face of controversy and sometimes intellectual acrimony. Great universities, perform these functions very well. This is among the reasons why attention has been paid to the characteristics of world class universities [1–3] as well as to the threats to university quality in the form of corruption in higher education. Attention has focused on the definition of corruption, the degree to which corruption occurs, and its economic impact [4–7].

This paper combines these lines of scholarship and explores the degree to which world class universities exhibit ethical qualities. The study defines ‘ethics’ in the management of a university. This includes mission statements which mention ethical issues, transparency in governance and fiscal affairs, codes of conduct for faculty, administrators and students, procedures for adjudication of infractions, and other elements. It then proposes a rating for the ethical infrastructure elements. Universities have been divided into two groups. First are universities listed on the Times Higher Education Supplement (THES) international ranking. The second are random samples of universities in countries which use English, Korean, Japanese, Georgian, Chinese, and Russian languages as the medium of instruction.

The paper poses three questions. First, how common is it for internationally-ranked universities to exhibit ethical char-acteristics on their websites? The answer is unambiguous: 98 % of the world class universities have established an ethical infrastructure of some kind. Second, which areas of the world are more likely to have universities which exhibit a depth of ethical infrastructure elements on their websites? In terms of countries, the most comprehensive ethics infrastructure can be found in Britain, the U.S., and Japan. Lastly, what is the relationship between the level of international ranking and the depth of ethical ingredients? The strength of the relationship is weak, suggesting that the depth of ethnical infrastructure is not an important determinant of ranking. However given the fact that virtually all ranked THES universities, across 40 counties, mentioned ethical infrastructure elements, suggests that having an ethical infrastructure is an important ingredient associated with other elements in a university’s reputation.

This article discusses issues associated with the facilitation of higher education accessibility by intensifying university-government cooperation. Existing approaches to measuring the accessibility of the higher education system as a whole and its specific components were analysed. Various aspects of the problem were investigated using the example of higher education institutions in the Russian Far East. The analysis was based on data retrieved from the Russian Federal Statistics Service and the Unified Information System of the Ministry of Education and Science. It is shown that residents in the Russian Far East receive substantial opportunities for accessing higher education as compared to the residents in other Russian federal districts. Nevertheless, the extremely low geographical accessibility of higher education in this part of Russia has a detrimental effect on overall access to higher education. On the basis of the obtained results, a number of recommendations were developed for facilitating cooperation between universities and governmental authorities in order to increase overall accessibility to higher education in this region. It is proposed to compensate for the negative impact of the geographical factor by maximizing the positive effects of other factors, for instance, by increasing the affordability of university education. Thus, students from locations with absent or very few higher education institutions may be reimbursed for their travel expenses, or reimbursement may be offered to those students who are not provided with dormitory accommodation. Universities may keep their tuition fees at the lowest rate as established by the RF legislation.

The article discusses conceptual grounds of tuition fee policies based on literature review and the study of country-specific cases of the USA, France and Russia in order to highlight general trends and identify practices which can be considered for implementation in Russia. The Authors believe that scholarly publications offer contradicting empirical results related to the impact of tuition fee policies on the performance of higher education institutes. Several theoretical frameworks such as human capital, demand and consumer choice theories as well as the concept of new managerialism are used to explain controversial empirical evidence. Moreover, the effects of tuition fee policies are proven to be contingent on multiple factors such as state governance system, dynamics of labor market, organizational design of higher education, maturity of financial assistance system, prestige and uniqueness of specific educational programs. It is concluded that, apart from PhD studies, overall trend is towards wider application and increase in tuition fees combined with high price for foreign students. Doctoral students in most cases do not pay tuition fees, but get salary for work in research projects conducted to develop new knowledge. Both in the USA and France the best education is provided by highly selective expensive private institutions (although in both countries there are high quality public education). In Russia the most attractive, though expensive for those who pay tuition fees, are public universities because they provide high quality education. Potential change in tuition fee policy in Russia should acknowledge that, in general, higher tuition fees are justified for studies providing higher future earnings. Increase in tuition fees should be coupled with more developed financial aid system.

The aim of this work is to review and analyse the support and development practices for students based on their educational background and academic performance. The increasingly widespread concept of a responsible university involves an opportunity to close or make smaller the gap between academically diversifi ed students. Thus, the purpose is to systematise the practice of working with both low and high-achieving students and assess the possibilities for improving the quality and effectiveness of this work. The analysis regarding existing practices of Russian and international universities is based on the literature review of more than 1600 sources. The review provides identifi cation, comparison and systematisation of common practices used by departments and universities rather than individual teachers. A classifi cation of practices at the stages of identifying, developing and evaluating low and high-achieving students is proposed. Recommendations are formulated for expanding the support and development of students under the conditions of academic diversity and for improving the quality and effectiveness of the educational process.

All organizations, including Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), should be socially responsible. Therefore, the article aims to answer the following research questions: How are the principles of social responsibility implemented by Polish HEIs? Through what good practices are they manifested? What formal national regulations support these activities? To answer those questions, the principles of the Declaration of University Social Responsibility and of good practices implemented by 23 universities, the first signatories of this Declaration, were reviewed. The applied research method has incorporated the analysis of the literature on the subject, documents and websites of the above 23 universities. The study presents the essence of university social responsibility and the special role of universities in promoting and implementing the principles of sustainable development and social responsibility. The activities of the Polish public administration in partnership with the representatives of HEIs, businesses, NGOs which led to the creation of the Declaration of USR were outlined. Examples of good practices applied by the examined universities and the ensuing conclusions were briefly discussed.

This paper is devoted to the problem of engaging youth in the formation of sustainable urban environment. A particular focus is on the role of universities as research and educational centres in this process. The problem was analyzed from two perspectives. On the one hand, an analysis was carried out to assess the activity of students as the actors contributing to the formation of urban environment, as well as the level of their involvement in constructive social practices and readiness for social and cultural participation in urban life. On the other hand, specifi c institutional and socio-cultural features of urban environment, which determine the social activity of youth, were investigated. Russia and Poland were selected as the objects of analysis, mainly because these countries share a common socio-cultural, ideological and historical heritage. The research methodology involved a secondary analysis of published data and a survey among Russian and Polish university students. The respondents were selected using the method of targeted sampling and included 465 and 248 respondents from Russia and Poland, respectively. As a result, a number of differences between the countries were identifi ed. In Poland, a shift towards non-formalised social practices and non-institutionalised forms of participation is evident. Russia, however, shows the opposite trend, which involves formalisation and bureaucratization of youth social participation through centralisation of programmes and projects, as well as unifi cation of approaches used to encourage youth activity. Polish youth demonstrates a higher social activity and a higher level of trust in NPOs, as well as orientation towards democratic values. For Russian students, a submissive position with respect to the city authorities as the main subject of urban development was found to be more typical. Although, in general, Russian and Polish students demonstrate similar patterns of participation in urban development, the former are more focused on its collective forms, while the latter are oriented at individualisation. The obtained results provide for a deeper understanding of the nature of youth participation in the socio-cultural development of cities. Our fi ndings can be used in practice for the development of university strategies aimed at promotion of student social engagement.

Entrepreneurship education is one of the “youngest” segments in the sphere of Russian higher education. A lack of traditions and established practices in the development of educational programmes for entrepreneurs negatively affects the quality of such education at universities. In this regard, the role of internal and external stakeholders in the formation and improvement of entrepreneurship education programmes is growing.

This article analyses the practice of Russian universities in the development of educational programmes for entrepreneurs.

Key research foci include the structure of competencies specified in such programmes and their correlations with the regional context of entrepreneurship development.

A number of research hypotheses were formulated, including those concerning the transformation of entrepreneurship education programmes under the pressure of stakeholders’ demand for soft skills, heterogeneity of entrepreneurship education programmes as the result of differences between regional entrepreneurial ecosystems, involvement of internal and external stakeholders in the creation of entrepreneurship education programmes.

The data presented in the article were obtained from open sources, such as the websites of universities implementing courses of entrepreneurship education.

The main results of the study include:

1 An integrated model of soft skills structure as a methodological platform for research in the sphere of entrepreneurship education.

2 Identification of regional differences in entrepreneurship education programmes.

3 Verification of a hypothesis concerning the impact of entrepreneurial ecosystem factors on the state of entrepreneurship education.

4 Formulation of problems for future research with regard to interaction between all the actors and institutions of regional entrepreneurship ecosystems.

This article presents a model for the evaluation of scientific research output from the standpoint of university engagement with the socio-economic environment based on a scientometric analysis of topical areas. The primary aim was to examine various interrelations between conventional and alternative scientometric indicators that most clearly reflect the relationship between universities, industry and society. Three countries and five topical research areas were chosen as the object of the study. A comparative analysis showed that conventional scientometric indicators correlate quite well with the indicators of social and commercial relevance of scientific research. However, since this relationship was not observed in the case of Brazil, an assumption was made about the influence of the national and disciplinary context. The evaluation of university engagement cannot be performed based exclusively on quantitative indicators, thus requiring qualitative assessment, e. g. peer review.

Category: conceptual article. The problem considered in the article is the failure of most Russian universities to develop intellectual property (IP) management strategies capable of meeting the challenges of the market. The importance that is currently attached to this issue concerns the national strategy for the scientifi c and technological development of the Russian Federation – in particular, as enshrined in the national project “Nauka” (Science). The goal of the work determined by the current situation is thus to formulate the structure of the strategic goals of universities in the field of intellectual property, as well as to identify and systematise typical strategies for their accomplishment.

To achieve this goal, the following tasks were carried out within the framework of the study: 1) an analysis of Russian and foreign publications in order to systematise methodological approaches to the formation of the university’s patent strategy; 2) a systematisation of key performance indicators used in assessing the activities of universities in their reporting documents and ratings; 3) a collation of approaches to the formation of patent strategies of Russian universities, based on a comparative analysis of university-wide missions and goals, as well as general aims and strategies for managing intellectual property.

The solutions to these problems formed the basis for a systematisation of approaches to the formation of patent strategies in Russian and foreign practice. It is proposed that patent strategy be considered as a vector of the development of university IP across such coordinates as the competitive behaviour model, as well as the volume, geographical distribution and structure of the patent portfolio with respect to target audiences (key consumers) and strategic partnerships. The conducted studies and generalisations, which will be used to support the innovation activity of UrFU, may also be useful to other universities of the Russian Federation for improving systems of innovation and intellectual property management.